PRIDE FC nostalgia

I downloaded all of the PRIDE events, and was going to start looking through them on my free time. It occured to me that a lot of people on here seem to long for the "good old PRIDE days". So I thought; what are the things that people are missing in the UFC?

Aside from that screaming lady and el Guapo as commentator I can't think of anything that I really miss all that much. Don't get me wrong, I liked PRIDE, I just don't get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. So please tell me what you are missing and what you feel that the UFC should have learned from PRIDE.

Never got why people liked the ring, it just made for some wierd brakes and intervention from the referees.

the 10 minute first round, yellow cards

I don't mind them, but I don't miss them either.

soccer kicks and stomps

Soccer kicks are just stupidly dangerous, stomps I don't know, but I can see a huge risk for fighters.

knees to downed opponent

less of a problem injury-wise, I'd like to see them allowed as long as both fighters are down at least.

tournaments

Never liked 'em. Too much risk of fighters getting injured thus having the awful choice of the whole tournament stalling, bringing in a replacement or letting a fighter get an easy pass.

no 3-losses-and-you're out rule

not aware that this was a rule, and really, if MMA had as deep a talent pool then as it has today you'd have seen the same in PRIDE.

catchweight fights

PRIDE didn't really have weightclasses outside title-fights and certain tournaments. I don't know if I see that as a problem in the UFC, outside some really exciting possible matchups there is little point to it IMO.

no 10 point must system

I feel that a bigger problem in both orgs is (was) the shitty judging. The points system is not as big a problem as the wierd judging that takes place all too often.

than five minutes of manhugging at the cage wall or lay and pray wrestling. Pride rules changed the entire ground game. Note of the tippy-tap punches you see when guys turtle now; those would be knees. Side control and north-south were very, very dangerous positions to be in.

Stomps are no more dangerous than up-kicks. Soccer kicks aren't that dangerous either, as you could only use the top of your foot. Elbows are worse than both, not because they stop fights, that doesn't happen very often. It's because their only purpose is cuts. I don't see the competitve or artistic value in encouraging fighters to use a technique that's only merit is to cause injury.

Kneeing someone on the ground isn't any worse than kneeing them on their feet. It's not like you could climp the ropes and do knee drops.

The 3 and out rule is about bias and not an actual rule. The UFC is famous for firing losers, yet guys like Lidell can get KO'd 8 times in a row and still get fights, Tito can lose for 6 straight years and still get fights despite being hated. There wasn't any of that bullshit in Pride, you had to do something very wrong to get fired.

I always liked the ring over the cage because the cage is so unrealistic. You can use the cage, but only how you're told. Under no circumstance can you grab it even though that is an insticual response for every fighter. Getting under a rope didn't get you out the situation, it only made you move to the middle of the ring. That forced the fighters to use their skills and kept it competitive. In the cage you press people against it and they can't use it to get up. There's no skill involved in leaning on someone and it gives an unbalanced advantage.

I know it wasn't ever intended to be that way, but in the UFC it's easier to use the rules to steal a win. Where as in Pride, you actually had to win, or pay off your opponent I guess... Other than the fight fixing, that's why I miss Pride and don't care much for the UFC, not that I don't still keep up with UFC though. You had to fight in Pride, you only have to get by in UFC. Sure Pride had it's borring fights, but nothing on the scale of UFC, and Prides borring fights were better than some of the decent fights in the UFC.

Stomps are no more dangerous than up-kicks. Soccer kicks aren't that dangerous either, as you could only use the top of your foot. Elbows are worse than both, not because they stop fights, that doesn't happen very often. It's because their only purpose is cuts. I don't see the competitve or artistic value in encouraging fighters to use a technique that's only merit is to cause injury.

Kneeing someone on the ground isn't any worse than kneeing them on their feet. It's not like you could climp the ropes and do knee drops.

The 3 and out rule is about bias and not an actual rule. The UFC is famous for firing losers, yet guys like Lidell can get KO'd 8 times in a row and still get fights, Tito can lose for 6 straight years and still get fights despite being hated. There wasn't any of that bullshit in Pride, you had to do something very wrong to get fired.

I always liked the ring over the cage because the cage is so unrealistic. You can use the cage, but only how you're told. Under no circumstance can you grab it even though that is an insticual response for every fighter. Getting under a rope didn't get you out the situation, it only made you move to the middle of the ring. That forced the fighters to use their skills and kept it competitive. In the cage you press people against it and they can't use it to get up. There's no skill involved in leaning on someone and it gives an unbalanced advantage.

I know it wasn't ever intended to be that way, but in the UFC it's easier to use the rules to steal a win. Where as in Pride, you actually had to win, or pay off your opponent I guess... Other than the fight fixing, that's why I miss Pride and don't care much for the UFC, not that I don't still keep up with UFC though. You had to fight in Pride, you only have to get by in UFC. Sure Pride had it's borring fights, but nothing on the scale of UFC, and Prides borring fights were better than some of the decent fights in the UFC.

I'd also like to chime in with Overeem laying the smack on Lesnar Fri. Score one more for Pride, debunking a UFC "haze of greatness" myth. But, But, but he was the UFC champ. The only but, was Lesnar's buttocks, you could hear them clinch up, after the first knee.

Squeeeeeeek.

I'm very happy for some of the Pride fighters, to be in the UFC mix, and still relevant. Bring in Barnett. He'd tool most of the UFC HW's IMO.

EDIT: Soccer kicks are a great antigrapple. Stomping too. Wandy, Fedor, Saku, and others were dangerous anyway, but d3adly if you wanted to Werdum-style-lonesome-lay n' become-prey.

I'd also like to chime in with Overeem laying the smack on Lesnar Fri. Score one more for Pride, debunking a UFC "haze of greatness" myth.

As I remember discussions on various boards, Pride had by far the more rabid fanboys, who claimed that any of the big names from Pride could just waltz over and thoroughly destroy their respective UFC divisions.

Didn't quite happen that way. Pride had some excellent fighters; some did very well in the UFC (Anderson Silva), some ended up in the top tier, winning some and losing some (Shogun, Dan Henderson, Rampage, Minotauro), some ended up as stepping stones for up-and-comers (Cro Cop, Takanori Gomi).

Anyway, I don't miss Pride. At all. None of the Pride events I watched ever got me as excited as some UFCs did. I don't know why; in any case, neither the ring nor the rules helped any.

There are no wrong threats, only wrong answers. (Strategy game truism)